


moonshine

by cephea



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: M/M, References Niles’ Past Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 01:30:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13066329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cephea/pseuds/cephea
Summary: his only hobbies are chores, getting nina to do her chores, and letting other people pay him under the table to do their chores. that might be why he likes the new neighbor so much.(niles finally bothers to get his life cleaned up. a very common kind of modern au. third person pov.)





	moonshine

**Author's Note:**

> here we are, on the fifth day of christmas.
> 
> i didn’t quite finish the brand new fic i was hoping to publish, so instead i’m going to share this one. i wrote this about a year ago for a timed challenge, and was never sure whether or not i liked it enough to put it on ao3. well... here it is, i guess! in loving memory of soliari, who i crushed in that challenge.
> 
> hoping everyone is keeping their spirits up and taking care of themselves!

 

 

\- - - - - - - 

 

 

“Hey,” Niles offers, soon enough after they move in that it’s not rude, but not quite soon enough that they’ve got real work to give him, “need help with anythin’?”

The look he gets is more withering than this week’s 35 degrees, no breeze, but getting caught out so quick is worth it anyway.

“No.”

“Got it handled that fast?”

“Moving in is not a Herculean task, and-”

“That so? Not what I heard from this guy’s last tenants, you know, ‘s good to hear,” and he trails off when Too Rich To Be Living Here turns back a little reluctantly.

“And what, pray tell, have you been hearing,” and he sounds so exhausted just engaging with the material reality of his suffering that Niles almost takes pity.

Almost.

“Lemme know when you need helping settin’ up that laundry line, yeah?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, we have a washing machine for tasks as simple as-”

“Father!” the girl pants, covered in bubbles and red in the face, “the washer is-”

“You have got to be kidding me,” his favourite new neighbor says under his breath, obviously still under the impression that everyone here doesn’t have ears sharp enough to pick up a rattling doorknob four houses down.

Niles laughs.

 

  
\- - - - - - -

 

  
It takes long enough for Black Sweaters In The Summer to come beg for help that Niles knows the pair of them have more clothes than any human could reasonably need. He also comes early enough in the morning that Niles considers adding a shot of vodka to the coffee he’s just poured.

As any level-headed person in his position would do, he ignores the first three knocks to enjoy his fucking morning, thanks, but then Nina’s thundering down the stairs and throwing the front door open.

“I’m sooo sorry, I totally thought someone was awake down here, and,” she catches sight of him leaning on the counter and he knows he’s in for it, so he starts chuckling to get a good laugh out of it in advance. “You piece of shit, you were fucking awake-”

“Excuse me-” their guests stammers, but he’s not even close to getting in over Nina in a tirade.

“If you’re gonna go and invite your fucking vampire boyfriend over-”

“Excuse me?!”

“The new neighbor, dear. The wood house across the street your mom’s sayin’s gonna blow over next storm season?”

She pivots so fast Niles almost feels her braids’ whiplash himself.

“Nice to meet you!”

Fucking Vampire Boyfriend looks concerned and lost, jaw struggling and clenching before his features wipe clear, his posture settling upright and towering, and it’s almost a shame how fast he stops looking like he might belong here.

 

  
\- - - - - - -

 

  
Rich Boy’s name is Leo, Niles learns over too much brandy defracted warm across the table, and he’s not even rich, only his father was, before he didn’t have one anymore. It’s not the same thing, not really, because they own a crystal decanter worth more than his share of rent for the month, but Niles gets it anyway; feels it warm and awkwardly settled in his fingertips more than he feels the liquor.

“Usually somebody’d be payin’ before I’d drink this.”

“What on Earth do you mean, I have paid, by nature of-” Leo starts to slur, collapsed into the building paper avalanche of bills he was sorting before the alcohol came out, “ -wait. No. Don’t answer that one, I?”

Niles smiles at him, lets it get fond as Leo yanks himself upright because he’s never going to remember it like this.

“Your daughter doesn’t much look like you,” he settles on, eyes blinking too much and focusing just wrong.

“That’s the question you think’s safer?”

Leo frowns, like he’s going to take that one back too, but it’s so funny Niles decides to play along before he can.

“She really doesn’t, though, does she,” he says, hoping his false sense of wonder doesn’t make it through to Planet Shitfaced. Leo’s eyes widen and he leans forward a little, like this is secret conspiracy he’s been let in on.

“Does it keep you up at night, at all,” and Leo’s voice is so hushed he almost can’t keep up the act.

“Every night, you know, I just don’t ever sleep, ‘n you too, right?” and Leo’s nodding his head in empathy, stark dark circles blooming around his eyes and hair falling loose and flat. Niles cups his cheeks to keep his full attention for the finale.

“She’s not my kid,” he says breathlessly. Leo’s brow furrows, but he makes no moves to pull away.

“Well, yes, that was what. What I was meaning to imply, that-” and that’s as far as Niles can make it without bursting out with laughter, face burying into his own arm as he shakes so much Leo gets shaken with him.

“No, she’s,” and he has to stop on an inhale to steady himself. “Nina’s my roommate’s kid.”

Leo’s cheeks are hot in his palms.

“I’m terribly sorry, I-”

Niles downs the brandy and gets up to find his coat.

“Looks like you paid after all, huh?”

 

  
\- - - - - - -

 

  
“You still live here?” Belka asks from the curb one time he’s eating shaved ice with Rose and Nina in Leo’s garden.

“Did the dishes yesterday, didn’t I?”

She doesn’t react, staring unflinchingly, and he sighs.

“You know I’ve loved livin’ with you all these years, dear, but I’m not doing your dishes the day I move out.”

“Dishes aren’t rent.”

“Which is why you’ve got wads of cash stuck to the fridge,” he starts, but Nina freezes at his side, condensation dripping off her fingers, “unless your daughter’s gone and misappropriated ‘em again.”

“Nina.”

She turns away from them both, flushed. Niles sighs, runs a hand through the hair at the base of his neck.

“How much is missin’, I can try findin’ some more if-”

“All of it.”

He starts feeling the heat seeped and steeped into the asphalt, waves of dry air steaming off the street like some kind of permeated despair. Everybody stays still, even as the creaking front screen of door closes gently.

“Is everything alright? Something the matter?” Leo asks.

“Nah, it’s all good, nothin’ -”

“There’s no rent,” Belka interrupts coolly, and Leo turns to look at Niles confusedly.

“Have you been given a pass this month from your landlord? Or do you mean that-”

“She means she’s got hers, and not mine. Got lost on the way,” he says smiling up at the way Leo’s managed to block the sun so perfectly, before dropping to a low drawl, “somehow.”

“It’s not my fault-” Nina bursts but Belka just turns to look at her and her jaw snaps shut.

“Fine, ‘s fine,” Niles says, “I’ll figure somethin’ out-”

“By tomorrow.”

He doesn’t mean to wince, but it’s cutting. Of all the times he’s covered for Nina on rent thieving, it’s never been this much or this close to the deadline. The last time they missed by a day they ended up with no water for a week, and it’s not a game he likes playing, but there’s only so much you can take to the pawn shop on 12 hours notice.

Leo drops to his side heavily, the edge of too close, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.

“Here,” Niles raises an eyebrow, but it’s not like Leo can see with his gaze trained to the grass, “don’t mention to me directly how much you take, however, I’m not entirely sure I’m emotionally prepared to hear it.”

“Beg pardon?” Niles says in a mock of Leo’s accent. Leo turns towards him, rolling his eyes and shaking the wallet at him.

“Don’t be stubborn!”

“Impossible,” Belka says, the undesirable reminder that they aren’t in the garden alone, but she makes herself a saving grace by walking over to take the wallet from Leo’s hand.

The girls start eating again, Nina still burnt with shame and Rose burnt with sun, and it’s uncomfortable how comfortable it is when Leo lets out the sigh he was holding and leans back on his palms.

“Thank you,” Belka adds, warm and simple when she’s done counting bills.

Leo just hums.

 

  
\- - - - - - -

 

  
He finds Leo at work, arms full of the books kids have been haphazardly dropping all over the library in their haste to get in and get out of their back-to-school projects.

“Who the hell put Crime and Punishment up,” he murmurs, tapping at Leo’s lower back. Leo startles enough to look up, but eases back into sorting when he recognizes Niles.

“I’m afraid I’m not the person in charge of the displays,” he admits, shelving childrens’ zoology books.

“Nearly knocked it over,” Niles says, and puts his hands up in defense when he gets a bemused look back, “on accident,” he adds, like anyone will believe him.

“Is it that bad?”

“Rather eat garbage. You never got made to read that shit?”

“The prime focus of my studies was in Classics, fortunately,” Leo starts, and muffles a laugh when Niles rolls his eye, “and what would you have on display?”

“Somethin’ more honest.”

“When you phrase it that way, the only thing I manage to hear is ‘more miserable.’”

“Not many stories end all happy, you know?”

Leo’s features soak up soft, and the space he takes to respond hangs too long.

“Why don’t you write me one, then,” he starts, bending over to pick up another stack to reshelve, “a story with a happily ever after,” he amends, “and I’ll be sure to put it on display for all the world to see.”

 

  
\- - - - - - -

 

  
“Invite Rose over for me, would you.”

“20 bucks and I will.”

Niles groans.

“What, you needa be bribed to have her over now?”

“You guys don’t even go grocery shopping until the weekends, remember, like. If I’m gonna have a friend over I atleast need cash to take her to McDonald’s or something?”

“It’s to the left of the bag stash by the sink,” he says, and she lights up, “don’t bankrupt me, yeah Nina?”

“Yeah!”

He’s folding up the old throw blanket and digging for a scarf when Nina sticks her head out the window to yell at where Rose and Leo are sharing hot chocolate on their porch. He catches Leo’s eye when Rose is asking permission, chuckles at Leo’s knowing facial expression when he passes Rose crossing the street.

“What?”

“Nothing more than how unbelievable you are.”

“Don’t know whatcha mean?”

Leo pushes down on his thighs to stand up, empty mugs clinking together in his left hand as he turns to head in, right reaching back to grab at Niles’ wrist.

“Come on, then.”

Niles leans up against the counter as Leo shuffles around the kitchen cleaning, tracing the pattern of the grain absently while he waits.

“You know,” he starts over the running water of the sink, “I truly am sorry for the confusion over Nina being your daughter, I-”

“Was a moment when I metcha I thought your’s wasn’t, so let’s call it even, yeah?”

Leo turns to glower.

“Niles!”

“I’m old enough to be her dad, and I love her more ‘n her’s doesn’t, anyway, so it doesn’t bug me,” he says, stretching out his shoulders and slumping back on a yawn, “but you don’t look a day past 30, and Rose’s in middle school, you know?”

“Well, I’m,” Leo starts reluctantly, a little more to the dish soap than to Niles, “I’m not, I celebrated my 29th a touch before we moved in here.”

“Oh?”

“Wait a moment,” he says, turning the water off and gesturing confusedly with soap suds still clinging to his forearms, “you say that like you’re-”

“A bit older than that, yeah,” and even though Leo’s height makes him tilt up a bit to smirk, it gets the effect he wants when Leo flushedly turns to the dish towel to wipe his hands.

“Never mind that,” Leo says quietly.

“Forgotten it already,” he offers back in a sing-song Nina could be proud of.

“Does the blanket hold a special purpose?” and Leo nods at it as he rolls his sleeves down.

“Thought I’d have you do the constellations for me while the sky’s playin’ nice, Classics major.”

“I have certainly learned them,” Leo says, smiling a little more open and honest than Niles knows how to bear, “but you’d probably rather simply the moon, yes?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s only,” and Leo starts backpedalling again, “you’re always out watching, so I thought-”

Niles takes the step to box Leo in, curling their fingers together.

“You thought right.”

 

  
\- - - - - - -

 

  
They’re skin and higher threadcount sheets than Niles has strands of hair on his head when Leo pulls away, hands settling on his Niles’ hips.

“We don’t have to,” he says, so tender and soft it crawls up Niles’ spine like ice.

“Have to? Strong word choice.”

“Niles,” he says, imploring, “this is supposed to be something pleasurable, we-”

“Oh? I’m plenty confident about bein’ able to-”

“Niles, be honest for me,” Leo says, firm, looking him dead-on, “would you enjoy yourself if we had sex?”

For a moment his own pulse slams so hard he can’t think, and it eats up the time he could’ve given a good lie in, swallowed up whole in the space of an honesty he doesn’t have.

“It’s fine like this,” Leo assures him, pulling him in close, warm and pliant and kind, “it’s fine,” and he says it over and over like honey until Niles melts in it.

“It’s fine,” Leo says.

So he lets it be.

 

  
\- - - - - - -

 

“We’re moving out,” Belka says, a complete non sequitur to the snow family they’ve all been building in the slush.

“Ten years and that’s all the warnin’ you’re gonna give me?”

She straightens up, wipes sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.

“You didn’t do the dishes yesterday.”

Which is certainly true, and he definitely wanted her to notice, but not fast enough to serve that immediate an eviction notice.

“I’ve had an offer for a while, but,” and she trails off to let everyone fill in her magnanimity.

“Oh, bullshit, from who,” Niles scoffs, “your online wife, the sheep breeder?”

“Yes,” she starts, before Leo's choking hard enough that he’s got his weight forward and his hand curled to his mouth.

All four of them stop to watch him, half the snow family still missing heads and limbs. It feels an eternity for the coughing fit to close off and Niles vaguely feels maybe he should be patting his back or calling the ambulance, or something.

“Is he okay?!” Nina hisses at Rose, who is biting down on a frost-nipped thumb concernedly. He finally makes it upright, eyes wide and eyebrows sky-high.

“You’re the one marrying my sister?!”

 

\- - - - - - -

 

 

 

 


End file.
